The Intrusive Author in Alasdair Gray's Lanark and 1982, Janine

Rethinking author construction: the intrusive author in Alasdair Gray’s Lanark and 1982, Janine

Claire Blomeley Australian Catholic University

With the proclamation of 'The Death of the Author' in 1968 by Roland Barthes came the rise of the notion that the author, along with the text s/he creates, is a construction.1 Textual authority has shifted from authorial intention to the text, and with it the reader. This breakdown in authority has led to an anxiety of form in the author. In metafictional novels, novels that draw attention to their fictionality, this anxiety is made explicit through consistently highlighting the construction of the author. Alasdair Gray’s novels, whilst varying in content and form, all include metafictional devices that consider the construction of the author. Patricia Waugh in Metafiction argues that modern writers are aware of theoretical concerns regarding the constructed nature of fiction, and through this are able to manipulate and draw attention to the formation of a text2. Waugh also argues that metafictional writers 'all explore a theory of fiction through the practice of writing fiction.' 3With this in mind, I argue that Alasdair Gray’s novels are consistent with the idea raised in Lanark: 'I want Lanark to be read in one order but eventually thought of in another.' 4 Each of his novels can be read as independent texts, but can also be thought of as a body of work that, when read as such, influences the reading of the individual novel. Whilst this is true of all bodies of work, I argue that Gray explores the influences of creating various authorial positions on the construction of the author in both an individual text and in a collection of works. Metafiction holds that the author engages with theoretical questions regarding literature and therefore manipulates theoretical ideas in the texts to address these questions.

To discuss authorship in Alasdair Gray’s novels I draw from two theories, Michel Foucault’s author-function and Wayne Booth’s implied author. In ‘What is an Author?’, Michel Foucault discusses the function of the author in the relationship between an author and a text. For Foucault, it is the name of the author that maintains its position of privilege over the text, and he introduces the term author- function to describe the ways in which the idea or category of author functions in discourse. Foucault’s author-function is comprised of four aspects. First, the author’s name binds them legally to the text they have produced. Second, author-function does not exist in all texts nor for all times. Third, the concept of the author allows the reader to construct consistencies across texts sharing an author’s name. These consistencies include values, style and theoretical ideals. The fourth and final aspect

1 R. Barthes, 'The Death of the Author', in Leitch, V. B. (ed.), The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, 2nd ed., New York, W. W. Norton & Company, 2010, pp. 1322-26. 2 P. Waugh, Metafiction: The Theory and Practice of Self-Conscious Fiction, London, New York, Routledge, 1990, pp. 2-5. 3 Waugh, p. 2. 4 A. Gray, Lanark, Edinburgh, Canongate, 2011, p. 483. Limina, Volume 21.2, 2016 Claire Blomeley

is that in a text that possesses author-function the use of the first-person personal pronoun does not refer to the writer of the text. He distinguishes between the author and the real person, writing, 'these aspects of an individual, which we designate as an author (or which comprise an individual as an author) are projections, in terms always more or less psychological, of our way of handling texts: in the comparisons we make, the traits we extract as pertinent, the continuities we assign, or the exclusions we practice.'5 The author is not simply the writer, but is instead a figure constructed in discourse that is not limited to the individual writer.

Foucault’s concept of author-function emerges from a broadly sociological approach, addressing the role of the author, or more specifically the position of the author and the part it plays in society. It is not a feature of writing, but is instead a social construct that creates a form of discourse around the author. I argue, however that in metafiction the writer has an awareness of this social function and is thereby able to manipulate it in order to address ideas of the construction of the author. Using this concept somewhat against the grain, I bring to the interpretation of the texts the term author-function to discuss the influence of the name and discursive positions of the author. It is not a direct, definitive or singular influence, but is one that is created by the interaction of the reader’s knowledge of the work and the author and particular discursive formations – beyond both reader and author - such as genre or field of content, or modes of distribution.

The term 'implied author' has become a contentious one in the scholarly community with debates over meaning and relevance. The implied author is a concept introduced by Wayne Booth in The Rhetoric of Fiction. Most simply, the implied author is a ‘second self’ of the writer that exists only in the text. Booth writes of the construction of the author, 'The 'implied author' chooses, consciously or unconsciously, what we read; we infer him as an ideal, literary, created version of the real man; he is the sum of his own choices.'6This process is unavoidable, as Booth points out, 'However impersonal he may try to be his reader will inevitably construct a picture of the official scribe who writes in this manner.'7 The text offers the reader a set of linguistic conventions and norms that are consistent throughout a text and from which a vision of the author is created. The implied author informs the beliefs, values and purpose of a text. The term has been perceived as ambiguous, but in this there is a correlation to Gray’s work in the ambiguous and shifting authorial positions. The implied author is the product of the examination of the text that produces an image of the author, who in the same manner as characters in the text hold particular beliefs, attitudes and stances. The implied author however differs from characters as they are not explicitly present in the text but, as the name suggests, are implied through the text.

The implied author is not just contained to a single text. Booth addresses the issue of how the implied author can address a body of work by the same writer:

5 M. Foucault, ‘What is an Author?’, in Vincent B. Leitch (ed.), The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, 2nd ed., New York, W. W. Norton & Company, 2010, p. 1483. 6 W. Booth, The Rhetoric of Fiction, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1983, p. 75. 7 Booth, p. 71.

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Criticism has no name for these sustained characters who somehow are the sum of the invented creators implied by all of the writer’s particular works. For lack of a good name, I shall call such a sustained character (still different, of course, from the writer, with his quotidian concerns, his dandruff, his diverticulosis, her nightmares, her battles with the publisher) the career-author. The sustained creative centre implied by a sequence of implied authors.8

The career-author allows for a text to be placed in the context of the author’s other work. The career-author becomes a signifier for a set of consistent features. Unlike author function this knowledge, brought to the work by the reader, remains textual, containing no biographical knowledge, nor any of the other discursive preconceptions, such as the designation of the term 'novelist'. Significantly, this means that tropes and allegories can be seen to cross over in texts. In Alasdair Gray’s work, the reader having read 1982, Janine and having made a connection between sadomasochism and Scottish politics may then read Scottish politics into any of his further novels that contain sadomasochism. Without knowledge of the biographical Alasdair Gray the reader is able to construct an author of the works by Alasdair Gray who writes about the political state of Scotland.

Through analysing metafictional traits in Alasdair Gray’s novels, the various authorial positions in the texts are exposed. The author is not a stable figure across a body of work, nor within a single text. Author-function and implied author both work to form the author. The implied author as the inventor of the text is able to manipulate the reader’s preconceived notions of the figure of Alasdair Gray, and in doing so adds to the author-function. In turn the reader will approach the next Gray novel they read with a stronger concept of the author-function and in turn read the implied author as one that shares political agendas. Through metafictional traits such as parody, metaphor and manipulation of literary form, Gray is able to make this relationship explicit in his novels.

Texts presenting various authorial positions are not limited to modernist or postmodern writing. Both Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte break narration to discuss the nature of writing in Northanger Abbey and Jane Eyre, respectively. In these authorial positions we see the self of the author not only manifests as an extratextual figure but also can be seen throughout the text in the form of compartmentalised selves. Alasdair Gray’s novels present many authoritative voices that take on author- like roles. In doing so Gray is able to explore and make explicit the role and construction of the author in fiction. By focusing primarily on how Gray incorporates metafiction devices in his novels, we are presented with a discussion of the authority of authorship. In revealing the mechanics of authorship and the authority that accompanies it, Gray acts to diminish authority, which in turn allows for the reconstruction of power.

8 W. Booth, Critical Understanding: The Powers and Limits of Pluralism, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1979, p.270

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Through compartmentalised selves, Gray is able to demonstrate the multiplicity of authorial positions in novels. The different positions are able to function as an actualisation of the various authorial constitutions. By breaking down these positions into single roles the construction of the author is made explicit. For the purpose of my research, I have divided these positions into dominant roles within the text, these being the intrusive author, the artist, the critic, the editor and the alternative author. These positions, however, are complex, often crossing over, making it difficult at times to distinguish the role. Authorial positions are always multifaceted and contestable, demonstrating that multiple views of the text are necessary, and thereby multiple views of the author are also necessary. The texts do not build these authorial positions from singular texts alone. Instead, each position requires examination of multiple texts that inform and develop upon each other. In this we see that the body of Gray’s work functions together allowing the individual novel to be re-examined in light of the other texts, despite order.

The intrusive author, specifically the author who makes his/her presence known to the characters of the novel, is a metafictional device that has been used by many authors, including John Fowles in The French Lieutenant’s Woman and is even parodied by Flann O’Brian in At Swim-two-birds. The constructed nature of the author is highlighted by this conspicuous inclusion in the text. Following this common element of the novels, I see this authorial inclusion as a tool for the analysis of the various voices of the author that appear in Gray’s texts. Alasdair Gray calls upon this technique directly in Lanark and 1982, Janine. Though the role of editor in Poor Things and Old Men in Love also uses authorial inclusion through the shared name of Alasdair Gray, I address the intrusive author and the editor separately, as the editor role brings about a slightly different effect. The intrusive author is limited to a character who claims to be the author, and interacts with other characters in the novel. The editor role differs from this in that, although the editor is a character, they do not claim to be the author. As metafiction allows for the assumption that the author has a form of awareness of theoretical approaches to literature, the intrusive author is a mechanism that allows for the author’s theory to be discussed openly in the text. Lanark presents this most prominently when the intrusive author states: 'I want Lanark to be read in one order but eventually thought of in another.' 9

The intrusive author is neither the real author, nor the implied author but is instead a character taking on a role of author. Alasdair Gray highlights this by not naming the author figure in Lanark Alasdair, choosing to name him Nastler instead. The intrusive author usually calls on author-function directly through the use of the author’s name, or assumption of a shared name. Nastler is apparently a childhood nickname and has a phonetic similarity to the name Alasdair, which McHale refers to as 'a transparent distortion of Alasdair'.10 Douglas Gifford writes, 'Nastler (a nasty pet name for Alasdair?) plays complex games with the author's sense of being simultaneously victim and creator of life.'11 This reflects the hostile nature of the

9 Gray, Lanark, p. 483. 10 B. McHale, Postmodernist Fiction, London, New York, Routledge, 1991, p. 214. 11 D. Gifford, 'Private Confession and Public Satire in the Fiction of Alasdair Gray', vol. 10, no. 1, 1987, p. 102.

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character that claims to be creator of Lanark. However, regardless of this distortion the effect remains the same, the character of the author is not Alasdair Gray. This highlights the author presented in the text is a created one, one manipulated by the writing process. The authorial position created through Nastler becomes a transparent one, as Gray reveals the mechanism that constructs the author figure.

Gray calls on intertextuality in order to draw attention to the constructed nature of the author. When Lanark meets his author, the author responds to Lanark’s reaction, saying: 'Please don’t feel embarrassed. This isn’t an unprecedented situation. Vonnegut has it in Breakfast of Champions and Jehovah in the books of Job and Jonah.' 12By referring to Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions Gray is alluding to the interaction between the character, Kilgour Trout and the ‘author’ of Breakfast of Champions situated in the novel. Creed Greer, in ‘Kurt Vonnegut and the Character of Words’ writes of this occurrence, 'his interaction with the character seems to suggest the impossibility of an ‘author’ separate from the text.'13 Further to this, as the ‘author’ gives Trout free will the text draws attention to the fact that free will in literature does not exist, that the characters, including that of the ‘author’, are creations determined by the writer. Greer goes on to state, 'Breakfast of Champions argues the impossibility of the real/unreal dichotomy.'14 This is not only true of the character of the author, but also the construction of the author. We are never able to know the author through the text and therefore there is only ever the constructed author. Through this paradox the figure of the author remains the subject of the implied author, however the implied author is also a construction, constituted through the text. Furthermore, the author is not only constructed by the text, which gives the writer some control of how they may be constructed, but is also superimposed onto the text through author-function, of which the writer has little or no control, and therefore there is no true free will in the construction of the author.

Whilst Trout is given supposed free will by his author, Job and Jonah have different experiences of free will. Job places himself in the hands of God, doing nothing to change his situation, and therefore never trying to implement his free will. Jonah, on the other hand, has his free will taken away from him by God when he tries to escape the task set for him. Jehovah is neither the name of the author of those books, nor what Job and Jonah would have called him even if he were, instead it is a YHWH). Here, in the discrepancy of names, we see a connection) יהוה latinisation of to Gray’s author figure. The author figure presents himself as Nastler, however if Lanark were to meet his real author would call him Alasdair. This may allude to the somewhat arbitrary nature of assigning an author’s name to a text, which functions, as pointed out by Foucault, as a manner of creating a discourse. What connects the books of the bible, both Old Testament and New Testament, is not their authors but the figure of the creator, Jehovah, or God. This figure is not a participatory one, but instead is a legitimising figure. It is not Alasdair Gray who connects the four books of Lanark, or his body of work, but the implied author. The name of the author

12 Gray, Lanark, p. 481. 13 C. Greer, 'Kurt Vonnegut and the Character of Words', The Journal of Narrative Technique, vol. 19, no. 3, 1989, p. 313. 14 Greer, p. 315.

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functions to create a body of work, however it is through the implied author the body of work is truly created. In this manner, the name that appears on the cover of the novel, Alasdair Gray, becomes an act of legitimising the work.

The connection between Jehovah and the author determines the intrusive author in Gray’s novels as a figure taking on the role of Author-God. Barthes writes, 'We know now that a text is not a line of words releasing a single ‘theological’ meaning (the ‘message’ of the Author-God) but a multi-dimensional space in which a variety of writings, none of them original , blend and clash.' 15 Gray is able to enact his own version of this theoretical idea, demonstrating through the intrusive author that the Author-God is him/herself multi-dimensional. By creating the intrusive author as a character separate from Alasdair Gray, the Author-God is revealed as a construction, diminishing his/her power.

By using intertextualities Gray presents multiple authors of the same writing, and in doing so highlights the singularity of authorship as a flawed representation of authorship. The author of the ‘Index of Plagarisms’ writes:

Epilogue, para. 1. 'I am part of that part which was once the whole' is an Implag from Mephistopheles’ speech in Faust Act I, Scene III: 'Ich bin ein Theu des Theus, der Angango alles war.' 16

The original text however is 'Ich bin ein Teil des Teils, der anfangs alles war'17. Kristen Stirling writes of this: 'the relevant quotation is distorted and incomprehensible in the Index, which I can only put down to a typesetting or proofreading error.'18 Stirling connects Nastler to the devil figure in Faust, Mephistopheles, giving Nastler as the creator 'more devilish connotations.'19 The distortion of the quotation therefore may be more than a typesetting or proofreading error. Faust begins with Mephistopheles wagering with God as to whether or not Mephistopheles can lead Faust astray from his righteous pursuits of knowledge. The author of the Index acts in this manner not towards Lanark, but towards the reader. The translation may be an Implag (Imbedded Plagiarism) but the direct quote is not. As Stirling points out, it is incomprehensible. By misquoting, Gray draws attention to

15 Barthes, p. 1324. 16Gray, Lanark, pp. 488-489. 17 J. Goethe, 'Faust', Berlin, http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/faust-eine-tragodie-3664/6, 1808, (accessed 10 June 2015). 18 K. Stirling, '"Part of a Part Which Was Once a Whole": Mephistopheles and the Author-Figure in Lanark and Fleck' in Manfedi, O. (ed.), Alasdair Gray: Ink for Worlds, Hampshire; New York, Palgrave MacMillian, 2014, p. 35. 19 Stirling, p. 35.

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the power given to the author in particular settings. The author in admitting to borrowing material from other authors, and through this act of seeming honesty is assumed to be giving the correct information. Misquoting the text shows that this material is still manipulated, and through this the authority of the author as the provider of truth, both fictional and factual, is diminished. Therefore we must consider that all material given in the text is subject to manipulation by the author. As Alasdair Gray creates all aspects of his novels, extra textual aspects must be considered construction also, including author biographies, and critical reviews, and therefore should be approached with the same diminished authority established in the list of plagiarisms.

In acknowledging and listing the 'plagiarisms' in the text, the singular author no longer holds authorship. By highlighting the intertextualities within the text by indexing the author’s 'plagiarised', the text becomes the work of many authors. Unlike footnoting, the index asks for the author to be considered before the reference, literally putting the author before the text. The index therefore calls on author function of the other writers in much the same manner as presenting the name of the author on the cover of a novel. By doing so we are asked to consider how each external text adds to the narrative, and in turn highlights Barthes’ idea, discussed earlier, that a text is a 'multi-dimensional space in which a variety of writings, none of them original, blend and clash'20. The index also includes authors’ names whose work has not been plagiarised, or whose plagiarisms have not been included, in the case of those that appear in chapters after the forty-ninth chapter of the novel. This multi-authorial position is not only presented in Lanark but also Poor Things, Something Leather, A History Maker and Old Men in Love. Poor Things acknowledgement of ‘plagiarism’ could be overlooked by many readers. The copyright page includes a note of thanks from the author. This note includes specific mention of works in which he takes suggestions or ideas. These include minor suggestions: 'Lessing’s Nathan the Wise (published in 1894 by MacLehose & Son, Glasgow, for the translator William Jacks, illustrated with etchings by William Strang) which suggested the form (not content) of the McCandless volume', as well as sentences taken from other work: 'Three sentences from a letter to Sartre by Simone de Beauvoir, embedded in the third and fourth paragraphs of Chapter 18, are taken from Quentin Hoare’s translation of her letters published by Hutchinson in 1991.'21 The acknowledgement reinforces the multiple authorship through intertextuality established in Lanark, destabilising the singularity of authorship through the fiction author McCandless. Through plagiarisms the author of the text is no longer the sole author, instead the author’s work is placed into the context of other authors’ work. Whilst intertextuality is a common trait of texts, by drawing attention to specific examples the authorial voice becomes divided into voices. The text calls upon the implied authors of the plagiarised texts, as the text asks us to consider their role and appearances in the novels. The implied author of Alasdair Gray’s work therefore is one which is defined not only by his own writing, but also by the writing of others. Through this we see that whilst the implied author is textual

20 Barthes, ‘Death of the Author’, p. 1324. 21 Gray, Poor Things, p.iv.

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it is not only the individual author that determines how the implied author is constructed. As Alasdair Gray has also published non-fiction works regarding Scottish independence author-function can be formed through these works, and therefore can be drawn on by the reader to further the construction of the author, highlighting within the text, through authorship, a political commentary. The multifaceted construction of the author is demonstrative of Gray’s cultural nationalism, in which the Scottish identity is not formed through a single defining body, but is formed through the collective narrative of those who reside in Scotland.22

The intrusive author appears also in 1982, Janine, however this time not named as the author, but instead as the creator. The pages titled ‘Ministry of Voices’ present multiple voices split on the page.23 One of the voices claims to be Jock McLeish’s maker, and is often attributed to god. The character of the author and god are first connected in Lanark. Nastler, the 'author', also draws parallels between himself and god when Lanark asks, 'Are you pretending to be God?' 'Not nowadays. I used to be part of him, though. […] Creation festers in me.'24 Nastler strengthens this connection by also naming Jehovah, an alternative name for the Jewish God, as the author of the books of Job and Jonah.

Links between the word god and creator are also made evident in Poor Things with Bella Baxter’s creator Godwin Baxter being referred to as God by Bella. Through looking at the body of the text we can also attribute the voice Jock hears to an author figure, as we are aware through the visual text that Jock is a construction of the author. At this moment the text has two ‘author-figures’, the voice and Jock, while the latter is simultaneously creating a fantasy of Janine. Through the intrusive author, the creator, the text makes it explicit that there are multiple authorial voices within a text, and that all of these voices are constructions. By never naming the creator as the author, the creator becomes a detached figure, unknown outside of what is presented in the text. If we connect the figure of the author with the creator, or god, as Lanark suggests, we are presented with the notion that the author is also a detached figure, unknowable outside of what is presented in the text, and therefore always already a constructed figure, that is inveiled with authority and power.

A God character is presented further in 1982, Janine, although preceding ‘The Ministry of Voices’ in a more direct way. His presentation changes through typography, from columned voice to an in-text voice distinguished by brackets. In doing so the figure becomes one that can be read as an internal voice in Jock McLeish, as it was presented prior to ‘The Ministry of Voices’. Following this scene Jock addresses the reader as the author of the novel, writing, 'The story of how I went wrong is called From the Cage to the Trap'25, aligning with the title of Chapter 12 given in the table of contents. Upon Jock’s first interactions with the god character it is not the figure who names himself as God, but Jock. Jock begins a conversation with this figure: 'one solitary god is too few for me. I need more of you. (The Holy

22 A. Gray, Independence: An Argument for Home Rule, Edinburgh, Canongate, 2014, p. 9. 23 A. Gray, 1982, Janine, Edinburgh, Canongate, 2003, pp.168-172 24 Gray, Lanark, p. 481. 25 Gray, 1982, Janine, p. 181.

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Trinity?) Too abstract and Episcopalian. (JesusMaryandJoseph?) Too catholic and familiar. Nor do I want you splitting into Jupiter, Mars, Venus etcetera, those Mediterranean aristos make me feel cheap and inhibited. Why should you be less to me than all mankind?' (185) If we consider the creator figure not as god but as an authorial creator, the notion of a singular authorial position is exposed as limited, and at the same time the divided authorial voices are also too simple. By presenting so many variations and interpretations of god or gods we see that the author is also subject to this limited approach. Instead, Jock wants a figure who can encompass all mankind and therefore needs to be addressed at multiple levels. Jock goes on to address this figure as 'Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, My Lords, Ladies, Officers, Non-commissioned Officers and Men and Women of the World, and also, and especially, those who lay claim to none of these titles, particularly the punters north of the Tweed' (185). The creator figure therefore takes on multiple levels of authority. Through this mocking address to all of the orders of social classes the work is presented as one that is concerned with these social class structures, particularly with how this class system impacts Scotland. In this we see the calling on and development of author-function to discuss socio-political ideas of legitimation and textual authority. This discussion also extends to political authority and acts to destabilise authority in general. Jock McLeash identifies himself throughout 1982, Janine, as holding conservative political views, juxtaposing his narrative with the political context of Scotland. This further developed through the alternative chapter names given in the table of contents for Chapter 12: 'FROM THE CAGE TO THE TRAP: or: How I Reached and Lost Three Crowded Months of Glorious Life: or: How I Became Perfect, Married Two Wives Then Embraced Cowardice: or: Scotland 1952-82.'26 By aligning one of the authors with a political context the development of another, divided author figure acts to shift political authority from a centralised body. The introduction of the creator in Jock’s attempted suicide brings with it a change in his view of power, resulting in the rejection of his previously held conservative political views.

The inclusion of the author and the author’s metafictional engagement in the text is discussed by Patricia Waugh, writing:

For some writers […] the text may be a fictional construction, but the author is not. All else may be ontologically insecure and uncertain, but behind the uncertainty is a lone Creative Figure busily inventing and constructing, producing the text from His (sic) position in the Real World.27

The writer is able to hold on to the notion that as author they are the inventor of the text, and in order to draw attention to this the 'Real Author' incorporates her/himself into the text. Waugh goes on to write of the author as a figure in the text, 'Instead of integrating the ‘fictional’ with the ‘real’ as in traditional omniscient narrative, he or she splits them apart by commenting not on the content of the story but on the act of narration itself, on the construction of the story.'28 Waugh highlights

26 Gray, 1982, Janine, p.ix 27 Waugh, Metafiction, p. 131. 28 Waugh, p. 131.

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a problem with this approach to writing metafiction: 'The author attempts desperately to hang on to his or her ‘real’ identity as creator of the text we are reading. What happens, however, when he or she enters it is that his or her own reality is also called into question.'29 The more the author places him/herself into the novel, the more the reader views the author as another construction of the text.

By removing the name Alasdair Gray from the identity of the intrusive author, Gray is able to demonstrate the function of this device. The intrusive author acts to place the author into the text, however in doing so becomes another fictive element of the text. This removes the author from the text. In not sharing an identity with the intrusive author, Gray manipulates this device. By removing himself from the text he enacts the modernist idea of the ‘Exit Author’, that being an author who is 'invisible and unobtrusive, above or behind but not in his creation'30. McHale points out that, 'Strategies of self-effacement, while ostensibly obliterating surface traces of the author, in fact call attention to the author as strategist.'31 By creating an intrusive author who is not the author Gray is engaging with the modernist idea of the ‘Exit Author’, which acts to remove the author from the text. The fictional intrusive author calls attention to the author, not as strategist but another fictional construction of the text.

By altering the conventional use of the intrusive author, that being holding a shared name or identity, Gray’s author-characters enact the removal of the author. The intrusive author demonstrates the constituted nature of the author, and therefore further removes the author from the text. However, by removing Alasdair Gray as the named or assumed author figure Gray draws attention to the function of the device, and in doing so reminds the reader of Gray’s authorship. This creates a tension within the texts between reality and fantasy. In 1982, Janine we see this played out in conjunction with Jock McLeish’s sadomasochistic fantasy, presenting a connection between the tension of authorship, and that of fantasy and reality. The placement of the intrusive author in Lanark also highlights this tension, as the process of writing and the fantastical occur simultaneously. The author figure is presented as not only the author, but the creator. As creator he is responsible for the entire book, and therefore we must consider all aspects of the text, including visual art work.

The intrusive author is one of many authorial positions that Gray creates within his text. Each of these roles creates a tension between the constructed figure of the author and the real person behind the writing. By consistently drawing attention to the author as constituted, an anxiety of form appears to be present. By presenting them separately Gray is able to demonstrate that the author is not a singular figure. This identity is not always able to be controlled by the author, as authority does not lie solely with the author. The intrusive author acts to both remove and place the author into the text. The authority of the author is destabilised in the division of author roles. In revealing the mechanics of authorship and the authority that accompanies it, the act of diminishing authority also allows for the reconstruction of

29 Waugh, p. 133. 30 McHale, Postmodernist Fiction, p. 199. 31 McHale, p. 199.

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power. Gray’s use of authorship is in line with his political ideas regarding Scottish independence and identity, and whilst not conclusive, creates a broadened and egalitarian approach to authority. This authority is transparent, multifaceted and interactive. Whilst the author remains the inevitable central authority, s/he is not the sole authority on the text. If Scotland were to become independent they would inevitably have a government, a centralized authority, however whilst Gray never suggests an approach for this government he does urge it to be one that is reflective of and answerable to the people of Scotland.